Virginia Flaggers at Sharpsburg!

 

MANY MORE PICTURES @ Susan Frise Hathaway

On Saturday, September 29th, the Virginia Flaggers traveled to Sharpsburg to attend the Georgia Civl War Commission's Re-Dedication of the Monument to Georgia's Confederate Dead.

We arrived early in the morning, as it was the first visit to Sharpsburg for all of us. We started with a tour of the visitor's center and then headed across to the Dunker Church. There, we were happy to find a contingency of Georgia Confederates who had camped out the night before. We made some new friends, and enjoyed meeting these fine men.

We continued with a tour of the battlefield on foot, with flags, and made our way back around to the Visitor's center for a picnic lunch. Throughout the day, we had many opportunities to talk with visitors about our flags and the Va Flaggers. We distributed literature and educated folks about the flags we were carrying. Flagging a National Battlefield is fun...kinda like shooting fish in a barrel, for a Flagger! ;)

After lunch we headed over to the monument, and planted 56 Georgia Stick Flags on any marker that mentioned Georgia troops, as well as at the monument.

The ceremony was very beautiful, with a color guard, excellent speaker, and gun salute. We asked the members of the commission if they could PLEASE come up to Virginia and teach our commission a thing or two about how to commemorate the Sesquicentennial!

After the ceremony, we headed over to the sunken lane, to tour that area, and pay respects to the men who died there. We were moved at the sights, and again, had the opportunity to share about the flags we carried.

We concluded the trip with a visit to Burnside's Bridge and the Robert E Lee Monument.

Special thanks to Kelly Barrow for the invitation to the event, and to the Georgia Civil War Commission for a job very well done!